Laser energy source device and method

ABSTRACT

A laser device including a concave mirror converging beamlets from a plurality of high efficiency diode lasers to a focal point, an integrating convex mirror placed at or near the focal point reflects a first portion of the beamlets back to the concave mirror and allows a second portion through to a light transmitter. The second portion of beamlets exists the light transmitter as a homogenized uniform laser beam having substantially uniform convergence and focus.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of PCT application serial numberPCT/US08/81137 filed on Oct. 24, 2008, which claims the benefit of U.S.provisional application Ser. No. 61/000,228, filed on Oct. 25, 2007,incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Lasers have various applications. The determination of any particularapplication is dependent on both the power and the beam characteristics.Pulse length, energy per pulse, polarization, and coherence length allplay a part in the final outcome of the chosen application. Althoughthere are many different types of lasers, as well as many differentapplications, of particular usefulness for many applications are diodelasers.

Diode lasers have high electrical efficiency and can be set up in anarray pattern which can then be scaled to produce a high power. In thepast, when such an arrangement was attempted, each emitter (usually 1 of50 per cm bar, put into a stack) has produced a beam with a separate,differing wavelength (i.e.: color), coherence length, and divergence peremitter.

Laser diode power modules are known to change their peak outputfrequency with temperature variants, which naturally occur in arrays oflaser diodes, typically at a rate of 0.3 nanometers per degree C. Thisoften causes the entire array to operate at different frequencies fromthe point of turn-on until they have reached overload, with potentiallynegative results.

Across each emitter bar there is typically a temperature difference fromedge to center to opposite edge as electrical power is directed to thedevice and water is utilized in the prior art in an attempt to removethe temperature differentials. This results in a corresponding coloroutput difference in commercially available diode laser stacks ormodules. The effect means that as one attempts to focus this light to apoint, each emitter will focus to a different point or at a differentdistance from the lens. This can be a particular problem if the laser isto be focused miles, hundreds of miles, or thousands of miles away.

Due to these factors, the quest to produce a simple device utilizingthese diode lasers producing a useful, single output beam has, to date,eluded the scientific and technology worlds. Other methods have beentried and have had success in this goal. This has limited the usefulnessof diode lasers for a number of useful applications, includinghigh-power applications. The prior art diode lasers have not produced auseful, simple to implement, single output beam device, and such aresult has eluded the scientific and technology worlds. It would beuseful to provide a device that overcomes one or more of these problems.

Various prior art methods of collating the outputs of laser emittershave bee used with various levels of success, and all with substantialshortcomings. U.S. Pat. No. 6,782,016, incorporated by reference,discloses injection synchronizing a plurality of pulsed broad arealasers using a signal source; modulating the plurality of pulsed broadarea lasers using the signal source; and externally coupling theplurality of pulsed broad area lasers. U.S. Pat. No. 6,813,069,incorporated by reference, discloses a refractive index matched MOPAscaled fiber array laser. U.S. Pat. No. 6,826,224, incorporated byreference, shows a high power semiconductor array that outputswavelength matched, phase matched light which uses leakage betweenindividual emitters next to each other in a bar. U.S. Pat. No.7,203,210, incorporated by reference, uses a liquid crystal light valveon each diode emitter. U.S. Pat. No. 7,212,553, incorporated byreference, uses feedback to frequency lock the diode laser to manometerbandwidth, for a fiber laser array. But none of these solutions areadequate for all current needs.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Provided are a plurality of embodiments the invention, including, butnot limited to, a convenient, new optically and mechanically innovativemethod of making a laser system with the high efficiency of diode lasersand the high quality beam characteristics of crystal gain medium singlemode laser.

Also provided is a suggested design that would allow for a forty percentor higher on target delivery of electrical to light energy for militaryapplications that is robust and cheap to operate.

Still further provided is a suggested enabling technology to provide fordeep sea or land high-speed drilling and tunneling system capable ofaccessing the oil reserves in the deeper section of the Gulf of Mexico.The device is compact enough to be lowered into position on arobotically operated vehicle, in sea applications, or the energy can befed into a suitable fiber delivery system, for example.

Accordingly is provided a device for generating a focused laser beam,with the device comprising: a plurality of laser diodes formed into anarray, each of the diode lasers for emitting a laser beamlet operated toproduce a plurality of beamlets; a first concave reflecting mirror forconverging the beamlets to a focal point; an integrating convex mirrorplaced at or near the focal point, the integrated mirror adapted forreflecting a first portion of the beamlets back toward the firstreflecting mirror and for allowing a second portion of the beamletsthrough the integrating mirror; and a light transmitter adapted fortransmitting the second portion of the beamlets from the integratingmirror, wherein the second portion of beamlets exit the lighttransmitter as a homogenized uniform laser beam having substantiallyuniform convergence and focus.

Further provided is the above device further comprising a beam directorsubsystem including: a focusing mirror for receiving the homogenizeduniform laser beam to reflect a divergent laser beam; and a secondconcave reflecting mirror for receiving the divergent laser beam forreflection toward a target.

Also provided is the above device wherein the focusing mirror is adeformable convex focusing mirror and wherein the device furthercomprises a controller for controlling a deformation of the deformableconvex focusing mirror.

Still further provided is a method of directing a laser beam to atarget, with the method comprising the steps of:

-   -   generating a plurality of originating beamlets using a plurality        of individual beam generators;    -   reflecting a first portion of the beamlets back toward the        originating beamlets in a manner such that the first portion of        beamlets overlap the originating beamlets to frequency lock the        dominant gain profile of the generators and lock the coherence        length of the beamlets to the dominant phase profile; and    -   focusing and directing a second portion of the beamlets that are        locked in frequency and coherence as the laser beam toward the        target.

Also provided is the above method further comprising the step ofdiverging and further focusing the laser beam prior to directing thelaser beam toward the target.

Also provided are additional embodiments of the invention, some, but notall of which, are described hereinbelow in more detail.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features and advantages of the examples of the present inventiondescribed herein will become apparent to those skilled in the art towhich the present invention relates upon reading the followingdescription, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates the system components forming the apparatus of thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates the method of operation of the system componentsincluding additional support equipment; and

FIG. 3 illustrates another embodiment of the system components.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

This application describes embodiments of a device (or system ofdevices/components) and a method that can allow power scaling to justabout any level desired, from lower power applications to high-powerapplications, for arrays of various laser emitters. The beam provided byuse of these devices/methods will be of a single wavelength andcoherence length, which makes it very useful and adaptable.

To create such a system, diode laser power bars can be utilized. Suchdiode bars are high-power semiconductor lasers (laser diodes),containing a one-dimensional array of broad-area emitters. Theytypically contain between 20 and 50 emitters, each being e.g. 100 μmwide. The diode laser power bars are then fabricated into stackedarrays, such as, for the purpose of illustration, 2 cm wide×a chosenlength, but other dimensions can be used where appropriate for the givenapplication. For the purposes of an example used in this application, afabricated size of 2 cm wide×5 cm high with 20 bars mounted within thehousing can be used.

Once the size of the power bar array has been designated, the array orarrays are then mounted onto a structural support in such a way that allof the arrays are parallel.

Once mounted, the array will be fitted with lenses in order to collimateboth the X and Y (or fast and slow) axes of each beam in the array. Thiscauses the beams to be projected in what are nearly parallel “beamlets”which are perpendicular to the power bar array.

At a designated distance in front of the beam array a concave, highreflecting mirror is placed. The mirror is constructed with a focallength such that the focal point is on the plane of the power bar array.

Intercepting the return beam coming from the concave integration mirroris a convex optical mirror which is at least partially reflective. Theconvex surface of this integration mirror ultimately reflects a portionof the beamlets from all of the converging array of beamlets back to theoriginal power beam array. The curve of the integration mirror is chosenso that the resulting reflection beam is larger than what was sent outas the originating emitted beamlets. The returning (reflected) beams orarray of beamlets is large enough to overlap the other emitters on thediode laser array” and the adjacent modules in the array. Thisintegration mirror is designed as a partially reflecting, integratingfeedback mirror. The reflectivity of this feedback mirror is determinedby the gain characteristics of the chosen lasers (diode or fiber). Theoutput frequency desired will determine the materials used in the diodesof the laser array. As other parts of the spectrum are chosen, such aseye safe high water absorption lines, the gain is lower for thesedevices so a higher reflectivity is required.

When each “beamlet” emitter can “see” (interact with) the otheremitters, the entire array becomes frequency locked to the dominant gainprofile of the arrays, and the coherence length is also locked to thedominant phase profile of the array. If the implementor wishes toproduce a particularly line narrowed beam, a seed laser utilizing aLittman-Metcalf extended cavity diode laser, operating in the same partof the spectrum as the main diode array, can be employed. Thisconfiguration is called a master oscillator power amplifier or MOPAconfiguration. This ECDL would have its seed beam directed into a moduleat a convenient location, such as near the perimeter of the array. Thismodule would be the first to be turned on in the array, and the adjacentmodules would also sequentially be turned on or energized in the array afew microseconds apart. This would proceed at turn-on until the entirearray had been activated.

In the event that an implementor wished to amplify a very short pulse,such as a pulse that had a duration of one picosecond or less, the seedpulse would be directed towards the integrating feedback mirror so as toirradiate the array at the same. In this configuration the distance tothe feedback mirror would be made the same by mounting the modules onstepped platforms in the array so as to be at the same radius from thefeedback mirror. This effect would take place also by using a longermirror to array distance.

The remaining converging beam that is not reflected passes through theintegration mirror and then can be directed into one or more lighttransport conduits (e.g., fiber optics, a waveguide, or collimatingoptics). The chosen conduit is run through the center of the array. Thisconstitutes the output of the array as each of the beamlets has beenboth frequency and phase locked to each other.

A separate beam director system can be mounted adjacent to the emitterstructural support system, in which case a compact, very high powerlaser device is realized. The beam director, which is made up of boththe beam expanding optical elements and the refocusing optical elements,allows the output optical energy to be focused at the desired distanceonto a desired target.

The device as shown in the example embodiments includes a feedbackoptical element that couples a sufficient amount of laser energy intosurrounding laser emitters, causing a chain reaction effect. Becauseultimately all of the emitters are coupled together by the design of thedevice, this effect can be used for a device utilizing any size arraythat the designer and/or implementor would choose to construct.

The spectral output from a single diode laser emitter that could beutilized for practical use might be about 2-3 nanometers wide or about10 gigahertz, in a bell shaped output curve. Within that bell curve areclosely spaced spikes with about 150 megahertz separation. An extendedcavity diode laser (ECDL) would use a diode laser emitter, similar to alaser pointer but more powerful, which bounces the beam off adiffraction grating at an oblique angle, a common configuration iscalled a Littman-Metcalf resonator. These devices emit with a line-widthof 120 kilohertz or less.

The line-width from a ECDL is less than the spike or mode spacing of 150megahertz, thus if a whole array was encouraged into making only thatnarrow line-width, the laser could be focused to the smallest possiblespot at the farthest possible distance. Examples include about threemiles near the ocean (haze), 6-8 miles in the dessert (dust), 160 milesat about ten thousand feet altitude or even at a range of 2,000 miles ormore from outer space.

Lasers have a gain of a certain amount per centimeter of gain material.Diode lasers operating in the near infrared part of the spectrumtypically have a gain of about 3,000 per centimeter, with power barsbeing usually 0.10-0.15 cm. width, but because such devices have a rearmirror, a photon entering the “front” will pass through the gain sectiontwice before leaving the diode laser.

The designs provided in the example embodiments can be narrowed to the2-3 nm bandwidth. The ECDL is utilized as a seed laser, within the 20milliwatt (up to several watts or more) seed beam being reflected into afirst module, where the output from this first stack will be linenarrowed. A main mirror reflection will be directed onto a feedbackmirror (which is a lens that can be made with a dielectric coating to aspecific reflectivity or of uncoated glass or clear sapphire @ 4.5% &10% reflection, respectively, for example, though diamond is also anoption at about 20% reflection, and can handle very high power levelsdue to high thermal conductivity). The backward reflecting beam thenspreads or diverges onto a larger part of the array.

After several bounces of the beams (beamlets), the whole array becomesfrequency locked to the 120 kilohertz output of the ECDL seed laser.This is referred to as Master Oscillator Power Amplifier or MOPA typeconfiguration.

An array of fiber lasers could be utilized instead of the diodeemitters, if a feedback mirror concept with a seed laser is used as anoption. The fiber lasers act like the diode lasers in the MOPA example.Where in this example the line-width will be narrowed and the arraywould be substantially coherent and single mode in operation (each ofthose spikes competes with each other to grab as much energy as possiblein the gain medium, whether diode or fiber). A problem might arise wherefiber lasers are out of phase with each other (i.e., in multi-modeoutput). When this happens, the beam could be focused to a spot that isseveral times the diameter of a diffraction limited spot, with aresulting lower beam intensity.

Thus, the design of the present invention allows the diode array tocontinue to couple an output that is both frequency locked and phaselocked, and therefore not temperature dependant, which can avoid thetemperature-frequency drift or instability problem of the prior art.

FIGS. 1 and 2 show various features of the example embodiment shown intwo parts, a laser system A and a beam focusing system B. Commerciallyavailable collimated continuous wave or pulsed laser diode modules 1 areprovided in the center of the structure. In the example, a 2 cm wide by3.5 cm high micro-channel cooled array is chosen to be attached to astructural support plate 12 constructed of stainless steel. This allowsthe cooling and electrical connections to be made from the rear of eachdiode array module as shown in FIG. 2. The divergence of these modulescan typically be reduced to 4°.

The high power laser main mirror 2 is located to receive laser energy“beamlets” 14 from the diode array. The main mirror 2 can utilize astandard diameter with a custom curve, diamond turned ceramic or metalplate made from a thermally invariant ceramic or thermally stable alloysuch as beryllium. This ceramic plate is finished with a 99.9%dielectric coating which is the high reflecting surface. This mainmirror is then supported in the device with an appropriate supportstructures 8, 20.

One purpose of the main mirror 2 is to converge the beamlets 14 from thearray onto the partially reflecting integrating mirror 3. The ceramic ormetal alloy plate is chosen due to its ability to maintain its shapeover a span of large temperature changes. Although commerciallyavailable materials can be utilized to construct this mirror, thespecific shape of the main mirror 2 is chosen in order to converge thebeamlets 14, such as in the manner described in this disclosure.

The partially reflecting integrating mirror 3 receives the reflectedbeamlets 32. The convex optic of the integrating mirror 3 is designed toreflect at least a part (one to fifty %) of the light of the beamlets 32back toward the high power laser diode array modules 1, and to transmitthe remaining beamlets through the integrating mirror 3 to a lighttransmitter (waveguide).

The gain of each laser diode emitter 100 for the example embodiment isabout 3000/cm-1 for near infrared devices. If small amounts of energyfrom an adjacent emitter are coupled into another emitter, then bothemitters will become frequency locked and phase locked to each other, aneffect that is utilized by the invention. The conveyance optics coulduse either a hollow waveguide, or a large mode area fiber optic, as alight transmitter 4 to transmit the laser light from laser chamber A tobeam director chamber B. The light transmitter 4 is supported in thedevice with an appropriate support structure.

The purpose of this optic design is to homogenize all of the beamlets 32into a single, uniform beam 42 with uniform divergence characteristics.The light transmitter, coupled with the partially reflection integratingmirror 3, produces the final beam characteristics allowing the beamdirector to transmit and focus the output from the array 1 at apredictable distance.

Several different technologies can be utilized for the light transmitter4. If the transmitter 4 is just a hollow conduit, then the output willconsist of individual beamlets passing next to each other, and thus willact exactly like each other as the subsequent system refocuses the beam(which might include adaptive optics systems to counter atmosphericdistortion, for example), and a subsequent beam director (e.g., atelescope in a turret) to hit an intended target or work piece. There isa minimum diameter to which each beamlet can be focused in a designutilizing a hollow conduit, which leads to the use of a light conduitfor additional beam conditioning by homogenizing the beamlets into onebeam which has consistent and predictable behavior.

Using a light conduit as the transmitter 4 can homogenize the beamletsinto a monolithic beam, as long as the thermal distortions in theconduit are dealt with. Liquid filled conduits can be utilized as thetransmitter 4, but as the liquid gets hot, the liquid changes itsdensity and its refractive index, and that should be compensated for.This might be done by utilizing pumped deionized water (as long as a nonwater absorbing color of light is used).

Still another option would be to direct each beam-let into an individualfiber for feeding the beamlet's energy to a distant beam directorwithout having to deal with the finicky vibration sensitive optics oftube and telescope designs as part of the device.

Alternatively, a light conduit made of a rod of glass which has beenmade into a giant gradient index fiber optic by putting it into a bathof silver nitrate to change it's refractive index across the diametercould be utilized for the light transmitter 4. This design would be aneffective beam homogenizer that could handle large power levels as well.Another method of producing a gradient index optic would be to fabricateconcentric tubes of glass with increasing refractive indexes then fusingthem into a single solid. This is the current method of producing afiber optic perform. [The stage just before heating and stretching tomake fibers.]

A beam director system B is provided to direct the resulting laser beamprovided by the laser system A. A piezoelectric deformable convexfocusing mirror 5 could be provided by a commercially available systemcomponent with a shape dependent on the system constraints. This type offocusing mirror 5 can change its curve or effective focal length by upto 2 diopters or more. This will cause the uniform beam 42 output fromthe light transmitter 4 to diverge into a laser beam 52. An output dustwindow 55 can be provided for the beam director. In a weapon system,this would preferably be a piece of bullet proof sapphire or segments ofsapphire.

Acting in conjunction with a beam director mirror 6, these two opticsbasically form a confocal telescope focusing system to produce a highpower output laser beam 62.

The beam director mirror 6 can be made physically identical to the highpower laser main mirror 2, or modifications might be provided forparticular desired characteristics. In the example embodiment of FIGS.1-2, this beam director mirror 6 is used to project the high power beamoutput onto the desired target.

The main mirror support structures 8, 20 and 7, 60 can use a pluralityof press plates with proven 3-point contacts provided per press plateformula in its construction. A uniform pressure from multiple pressplates clamps the main mirrors into their respective frames whileallowing shock absorption and thermal venting from the back side of eachoptic. The main mirror support structure can be mechanical or pneumaticto meet system requirements chosen by the implementor. One would be moresuitable for a stationary application and the other for a high stressenvironment.

An external cooling system and an electrical and control systemconnections can be provided for the device, for example at location 100,for supporting the diode array 1. The cooling system can utilizedeionized water under pressure to cool the diodes. Such a system couldutilize a plurality of redundant water jet pumps throttled back bybypass regulators. Such a system can utilize off-the-shelf componentsthat are tailored to function in land, sea, or air configurations, asdesired.

The external power supply and control system is also coupled to thediode array. This could utilize a commercially available device that hasbeen custom specified for the present invention. Such devices arenormally made to military specifications, and are made up of hightemperature rugidized and attack hardened components. These arecontrolled by the “On-Off” commands of an external control system, suchas a targeting radar and computer system provided in a militaryapplication. Such a system would normally be available for purchase byauthorized government personnel when integrating such systems. Whencombined with the diode system, this control system controls thetargeting and fire control output of the integrated device by sendingthe finalized focusing information onto a focusing control systemcomputer 400.

The adaptive optics system is under the control of the main controlsystem, and can change the focal distance of the beam director. Thisallows the spot size to automatically custom focus to the specifieddistance at which the laser operator or targeting control computer haschosen for its workpiece or target.

The present invention is not only enabled by the coupling design, but isalso able to improve the output performance of a standard diode powermodule by use of the waveguide (or large mode area fiber) as will bedescribed hereinbelow. This component makes the entire beam predictablefor the computer-aided design of the beam director.

Another embodiment, shown by FIG. 3, provides an alternative adaptiveoptics system 50 configuration, using a fixed convex mirror 5′.

Conceptually, this system 50 includes four mirrors. A beam istransmitted straight up from the conduit, after being made parallel by alens. Picture the first mirror at a 45 degree angle sending the beam tothe right. Now have two identical mirrors that have a short focal pointfacing each other with the focal point common to both so that the lightshines into the first curved mirror and sends the light into the secondcurved mirror. Lets say that the two curved mirrors are sending thelight vertically with the light from the second curved mirror directingthe light left onto the fourth mirror which sends the light againvertically.

The focal point from the first curved mirror is made shorter, then thelight coming out of the second curved mirror would become convergent ifnothing changed in the second mirror. Now picture the 45 degree bendingmirrors being dichroic, so that they are high reflectors at the laserwavelength but transparent to other parts of the spectrum. Lookingthrough the first mirror at the first curved mirror, a camera systemwould see the same thing that the beam director was looking at. If thesecond bending mirror is made of sapphire, it would be transparent tothe mid infrared spectrum, say 1-5 u.

System Applications and Examples Commercial Applications

-   -   A 1 kw to 10 kw system would be typical for an application of        cutting and/or welding light to medium metals in fabrication        manufacturing.    -   A 10 kw to 20 kw system would be useful as a bonder for making        alloys such as in the case of powdered metal sintering when        doing laser engineered net shape part fabrication. This        application is mainly used in aerospace manufacturing. This        system application could also be used in medium metal plate        cutting or welding.    -   A 20 kw to 100 kw system would be useful in ship building for        heavy/thick section welding or cutting at high rates of speed.    -   A 300 kw system is the range that would allow for well drilling        and under water welding applications.    -   Systems with 1000 kw (1 megawatt) beams would have the capacity        to vaporize I-inch (2.5 cm) diameter holes through approximately        10 feet of rock per second. This would enable tunneling a        50-foot diameter hole through 100 feet of rock in a five hour        period of time. (Speed levels would increase in direct        proportion with each corresponding I-megawatt increase).

MILITARY APPLICATIONS: As in the commercial applications, the output isagain power dependent, although the function in each of the examplesgiven is similar in that they both function as a laser weapon system.

-   -   A 100 kw laser designed with a range of 0.8 to 100 kilometers        (0.5 to 160 miles) becomes a dominant force in military        applications. Used in this application, the system could be        focused onto a target (i.e. a missile, artillery launchers, or        any opposing forces) to neutralize it. When directed, the system        would cause the beam to vaporize the target or heat sensitive        explosives before they could engage.    -   A 4-megawatt laser system would be able to destroy approximately        8 targets per second at a range of up to 1600 miles        (approximately 2500 kilometers).

The invention has been described hereinabove using specific examples andembodiments; however, it will be understood by those skilled in the artthat various alternatives may be used and equivalents may be substitutedfor elements and/or steps described herein, without deviating from thescope of the invention. Modifications may be necessary to adapt theinvention to a particular situation or to particular needs withoutdeparting from the scope of the invention. It is intended that theinvention not be limited to the particular implementations andembodiments described herein, but that the claims be given theirbroadest interpretation to cover all embodiments, literal or equivalent,disclosed or not, covered thereby.

1. A device for generating a focused laser beam, said device comprising:a plurality of laser diodes formed into an array, each of said laserdiodes for emitting a laser beamlet operated to produce a plurality ofbeamlets; a first concave reflecting mirror for converging said beamletsto a focal point; an integrating convex mirror placed at or near saidfocal point, said integrated convex mirror adapted for reflecting afirst portion of said beamlets back toward said first reflecting mirrorand for allowing a second portion of said beamlets through saidintegrating convex mirror; and a light transmitter adapted fortransmitting said second portion of said beamlets from said integratingconvex mirror, wherein said second portion of beamlets exit said lighttransmitter as a homogenized uniform laser beam having substantiallyuniform convergence and focus.
 2. The device of claim 1, wherein saidlight transmitter is comprised of a fluid-filled tube.
 3. The device ofclaim 1, wherein said light transmitter is comprised of a hollow tube.4. The device of claim 1, wherein said light transmitter is comprised ofa plurality of fibers for transmitting individual beamlets.
 5. Thedevice of claim 1 wherein the light transport conduit is formed bycollimating optics.
 6. The device of claim 1, wherein said lighttransmitter is comprised of a rod of glass treated with silver nitrateto form a gradient index light conduit.
 7. The device of claim 6,wherein the light transport conduit is formed by fiber optics.
 8. Thedevice of claim 1, further comprising a beam director subsystemincluding: a focusing mirror for receiving said homogenized uniformlaser beam to reflect a divergent laser beam; and a second concavereflecting mirror for receiving said divergent laser beam for reflectiontoward a target.
 9. The device of claim 8, wherein said lighttransmitter is at least one selected from the group consisting of: afluid-filled tube, a hollow tube, a plurality of fibers for transmittingindividual beamlets, and a rod of glass which has been treated withsilver nitrate to form a gradient index light conduit.
 10. The device ofclaim 8, wherein said focusing mirror is a deformable convex focusingmirror and wherein said device further comprises a controller forcontrolling a deformation of said deformable convex focusing mirror. 11.The device of claim 10, wherein said controller is also for controllingan “on”/“off” state of said diode lasers.
 12. A device for generating afocused laser beam, said device comprising: a structural support; alaser diode array of a specific desired width and length including aplurality of diode lasers acting as laser emitters, wherein said arrayis mounted onto the structural support such that the output of the laseremitters of the array is substantially parallel beamlets of laserenergy; a concave highly reflecting mirror placed at a designateddistance in front of the array to receive the beamlets for reflectingand converging the beamlets of laser energy; a convex optical mirrorwhich is partially reflective for intercepting the reflected andconverged beamlets of laser energy from said concave mirror with theconvex surface of the convex optical mirror reflecting the convergingarray of beamlets back to the diode laser array; and a light transmittercomprising a light transport conduit, wherein the convex curve of theconvex optical mirror is chosen such that the resulting reflected beamis larger than the originating beamlets so that the reflected beamoverlaps the originating beamlets, permitting each beamlet emitter tointeract with the other emitters such that the entire array becomesfrequency locked to the dominant gain profile of the array and thecoherence length is also locked to the dominant phase profile of thearray, and wherein the light transport conduit receives the remainingconverging beam that passes through the partially reflective opticalmirror such that the output of the conduit constitutes the output of thearray and with each of the beamlets being both frequency and phaselocked to each other into a laser beam.
 13. The device of claim 12,further comprising a separate beam director system mounted adjacent tothe light transport conduit to receive the remaining converging beam toallow the output optical energy from the light transport conduit to befocused at a desired distance onto a desired target.
 14. The Device ofclaim 12, wherein the diode laser array is comprised of a stack ofarrays to increase the power output.
 15. The device of claim 12, whereinthe stack of arrays are mounted onto a structural support such that allof the arrays are parallel.
 16. The device of claim 12, wherein thearray has projected laser beams in substantially parallel beamlets. 17.The device of claim 12, wherein the light transport conduit is formed bya waveguide.
 18. The device of claim 12 wherein the light transportconduit is formed by collimating optics.
 19. A device for generating afocused laser beam, said device comprising: a plurality of laser diodesformed into an array, each of said laser diodes for emitting a laserbeamlet operated to produce a plurality of beamlets; a first concavereflecting mirror for converging said beamlets to a focal point; anintegrating convex mirror placed at or near said focal point, saidintegrated convex mirror adapted for reflecting a first portion of saidbeamlets back toward said first reflecting mirror and for allowing asecond portion of said beamlets through said integrating convex mirror;a light transmitter adapted for transmitting said second portion of saidbeamlets from said integrating convex mirror, wherein said secondportion of beamlets exit said light transmitter as a homogenized uniformlaser beam having substantially uniform convergence and focus; adeformable convex focusing mirror for receiving said homogenized uniformlaser beam to reflect a divergent laser beam; a controller forcontrolling said deformable convex focusing mirror; and a second concavereflecting mirror for receiving said divergent laser beam for reflectiontoward a target.
 20. A device for generating a focused laser beam, saiddevice comprising: a plurality of laser diodes formed into an array,each of said diode lasers for emitting a laser beamlet operated toproduce a plurality of beamlets; a first concave reflecting mirror forconverging said beamlets to a focal point; an integrating convex mirrorplaced at or near said focal point, said integrated convex mirroradapted for reflecting a first portion of said beamlets back toward saidfirst reflecting mirror and for allowing a second portion of saidbeamlets through said integrating convex mirror; a light transmitteradapted for transmitting said second portion of said beamlets from saidintegrating convex mirror, wherein said second portion of beamlets exitsaid light transmitter as a homogenized uniform laser beam havingsubstantially uniform convergence and focus; a deformable convex mirrorfor receiving said homogenized uniform laser beam to reflect a divergentlaser beam; a second concave reflecting mirror for receiving saiddivergent laser beam for reflection toward a target; and a controllerfor controlling a deformation of said deformable convex focusing mirror.21. The device of claim 20, wherein said light transmitter is comprisedof a fluid-filled tube.
 22. The device of claim 20, wherein said lighttransmitter is comprised of a hollow tube.
 23. The device of claim 20,wherein said light transmitter is comprised of a plurality of fibers fortransmitting individual beamlets.
 24. The device of claim 20, whereinsaid light transmitter is comprised of a rod of glass treated withsilver nitrate to form a gradient index light conduit.